Last night at select theaters across the United States, Motley Crue hosted a special one-time-only big screen showing of Crue Fest 1: The Movie. As the title states, the concert film takes viewers through one night at Crue Fest 208. The movie was shot at the Toronto, Canada stop of the tour.

Before the movie, a local Cincinnati radio station took a photo of the 40 or so of us that showed up. They also gave away some swag. I actually won a copy of the movie. I was thinking it was exactly what I was watching at the theater, but it turns out the DVD is actually a two disc set with many more performances than was shown during the "special presentation."

After the radio hoopla, it was time for Crue Fest. As expected, the movie featured a song from each band in this order: Trapt, SIXX: AM, Papa Roach and Buckcherry.

Trapt were featured doing "Contagious," SIXX: AM did "Life is Beautiful," Papa Roach performed "Last Resort" and Buckcherry owned about everyone with their live version of "Crazy Bitch."

About half of the Motley Crue portion of the show was cut from the theatrical release. Shown in theaters was "Kickstart My Heart," "Wildside," "Girls, Girls, Girls," "Shout at the Devil," "Dr. Feelgood" and "Home Sweet Home." I'm not sure what it is...but Vince seems to always sound a little rough on "Kickstart." I think the band needs a few good minutes to rev up and start working on all cylinders. After a few songs, Motley always seem to sound much tighter. The performance of "Girls, Girls, Girls" is pretty good on this release; "Home Sweet Home" has pitch problems.

Motley started using "Home Sweet Home" as their encore last year, specifically for Crue Fest. It's that whole nostalgia thing: a way for the band to thank their loyal fans for the years of dedication, while not pissing off the youngsters. When I saw Crue Fest in Cincinnati last summer, I was so impressed. The entire show was just non-stop fun and Vince sounded darn good. Most important, "Home Sweet Home" sounded great - and ended the night on a perfect note.

Should you buy the DVD of Crue Fest 1: The Movie? Yeah, if you're a die hard Motley fan. It's good fun to watch the backstage interviews, some of which were shown on the big screen. A downer was that the movie doesn't feature song titles at the beginning of each performance (at least this was the case in theaters). Sure, I know the names of all the songs - but it's still a nice touch. The double DVD set also includes six Motley videos: "White Trash Circus," "Saints of Los Angeles," "Primal Scream," "Looks that Kill," "Live Wire" and "Kickstart My Heart." Motley's entire concert is also included as are more songs by the support bands. If anything, at least buy the DVD for Buckcherry. They are great here.

Reader Comments (7)

I'll buy it for the Sixx:A.M. and Papa Roach clips.they also aired some of this on Fuse yesterday.Trapt's Congtagious, Sixx:A.M.'s Life Is Beautiful, Papa Roach's Last Resort, and Buckcherry's Lit Up, as well as Motley doing Kickstart My Heart, Saints of Los Angeles, Girls Girls Girls, and Dr. Feelgood.

The venue where that show was held last year (Molson Amphitheatre) lost their liquor license for that show due to some infractions from the year before. That meant that the venue was completely dry, and the crowd was therefore a bit more subdued than it probably would have been for a normal Crue show. Not sure if this was evident in the video or not, but it definitely was visible at the show itself.